23. Quoted by M. Pascal, in the ninth of his "Lettres Provinciales." Consult also "the Life of Melancthon," by the author of this work, chap. iii.
24. Picart, Ceremonies et Coutumes de tous les Peuples da Monde, tom. i.
27. Gen. xxxiii. 18, 19, Josh. xxiv. 32. This place was the metropolis of the tribe of Ephraim. It was destroyed by Abimelech, but rebuilt by Jeroboam, who made it the seat of the kingdom of Israel. It was afterward called Neapolis; and Vespasian or Domitian having established a colony there, it received the Roman appellation of Flavia Cesarea. Herod gave it the name of Sebaste.
28. It stood two hundred years. JOSEPH. Antiq. lib. xiii. cap. 18.
30. "Living water, ὑδως χων. It may surprise an English reader, unacquainted with the Oriental idiom, that this woman, who appears by the sequel to have totally misunderstood our Lord, did not ask what he meant by living water, but proceeded on the supposition that she understood him perfectly; and only did not conceive how, without some vessel for drawing and containing that water, he could provide her with it to drink. The truth is, the expression is ambiguous. In the most familiar acceptation, living water meant no more than running water. In this sense, the water of springs and rivers would be denominated living, as that of cisterns and lakes would be called dead, because motionless. Thus, Gen. xxvi. 19. we are told, that Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water. It is living water, both in the Hebrew and the Greek, as marked on the margin of our Bibles. Thus also Lev. xiv. 5. what is rendered running water in the English Bible, is in both these languages living water. Nay, this use was not unknown to the Latins, as may be proved from Virgil and Ovid. In this passage, however, our Lord uses the expression in the more sublime sense of divine teaching, but was mistaken by the woman as using it in the popular acceptation." CAMPBELL'S Trans. of the Four Gospels, vol. ii. p. 518, notes.
31. "It is no unusual practice with the Jews; we often have heard of it. R. Jonathan and R. Jannai were sitting together; there came a certain man, [Hebrew], and kissed the feet of R. Jonathan." Again, "R. Meir stood up, and Bar Chama, [Hebrew], kissed his knees, or feet. This custom was also used by the Greeks and Romans, among their civilities and in their salutations." GILL in loc. Consult also HARMER'S Observations, vol. ii. chap. 6.